Zach Vickerson gets it done

Zach Vickerson’s enthusiasm for harness racing is evident in his voice.

The 24-year-old Portland, Maine native has been training horses since he was 16 and says there is not anything in the world he would rather be doing.

“My grandfather and dad have had horses forever,” he mused. “They did it as a hobby, and I always followed them around when I was a kid. Then, when I was about six, they sold all their horses. But when I was 14, my grandfather decided to buy a horse and get back into the business.”

Zach’s grandfather Milton and his father Scott, a corrections officer at Windham Prison, now help out the young enthusiast with his stable of seven that call the Cumberland Fairgrounds their home.

Raised in Portland, along with his two siblings and his mother January, a hospital worker, Zach played sports during his years at Deering High School, but admitted the horses were first on his “to-do” list.

“The horses were always my focal point—they were what I wanted to do,” Zach admitted. “After graduation in 2018 I went from having one horse to two to three to four. It just kind of snowballed. I made some money at another job for about a year after graduation and then bought a horse on my own for $13,000. He made $50,000 for me and I then sold him for double what I paid for him, and that enabled me to buy more racehorses and two broodmares.”

Now in his fourth year of training, Zach has amassed 60 wins, 45 seconds, and 39 thirds in 315 starts and $693,525 in career conditioning earnings. Last year was his best, as he had 22 winners who earned $305,440.

“My first training win came with a horse named Workin Them Angels in 2021,” Zach recalled. “I claimed him at Plainridge and had him claimed off me a couple of times. I had him for two years, and that first win, it was a great feeling. You work all week on these horses, and put your heart and sold into their well-being, and when they win for you, there’s no words to describe the feeling.”

Most recently, Zach scored his very first driving win, with the pacer King Spencer, p, 4, 1:50.4f ($193,875), a son of Sweet Lou, on July 15, at Plainridge, when he prevailed by a nose over a rival in 1:54.1. The Maryland-bred, out of the unraced Western Ideal mare Elizabeth Spencer, is owned by Zach’s girlfriend Haley Farken, who bought the gelding just a year before.

“Mostly, I just train, and I hadn’t really jumped into the driving part of the business,” Zach said. “King Spencer was a horse that hadn’t been racing that great and we kept saying all day before his race that we were going to just race him easy, but in the race he felt good and I moved him at the half and the horse on the front end was just completely done and he did the rest from there.  It was nerve-wrecking at the end and a nose isn’t much of a victory margin, but it’s still a win.”

Zach, who dons red, black, and white driving colors, admits that while Plainridge is a “good spot” for him, he enjoys an occasional jaunt to the New York and New Jersey tracks.

“Cumberland, where we’re stabled, is an old, old place with turn outs but nothing fancy,” he stated. “When you’re from up here and you start racing against people from New Jersey and the top places in New York, it’s tough to compete against them as they have all the tools at their disposal to help their horses.”

“The amount of work and time you spend with every horse is just so different,” Zach continued. “It’s like when you try to fine-tune anything, and then you’ve got to have good luck too. If you don’t have good luck on the track, it doesn’t much matter what you’ve put into the horses all week.”

Zach owns four of his seven charges, his grandfather owns two, and his father owns one, and both men are there to help out with the daily chores. Besides those seven, Zach also attends to his two broodmares: Whiskey A Go Go, an unraced daughter of Well Said, and Number Please, an unraced daughter by Western Ideal.

“I bought both of them through On.Gait,” Zach said. “I bred Whisky A Go Go to Dudes The Man and she had a colt this Spring, and Number Please has a foal by State Treasurer.”

When Plainridge closes down for the season in November, Zach says he is not yet sure of his plans for the winter.

“Like I said, I’m happy where I’m at, and my family is here, but I’d always like to have more horses. Right now, I’m focused on the ones I have, and working to make sure the put their best efforts out there on the racetrack.”

by Kimberly Rinker, for Harnesslink